Funding the Rise of Mass Schooling

Basic Schools in Each and Every Parish: The School Act of 1842 and the Rise of Mass Schooling in Sweden

“…To increase the quality of school buildings, Royal Building Plans (normalritningar ) were issued in 1865 and 1878. 39 Nevertheless, the power of the Swedish school system primarily remained in the hands of the school districts, in line with the formulations of the school act.…”

“…8 Overall, the number of primary schools increased to approximately 1500 by 1839. 9 This growth of schooling during the early nineteenth century was accompanied by a political debate on the Swedish educational system that drew on both the criticism of the state of popular education mentioned above and discontent with the organization of secondary education. 10 The political issue of education was also affected by contemporary political changes.…”

“…The latter was probably never an important revenue source and was abolished in 1883. 32 A parish could also apply for funding from the central government, but only if it was too poor to fund teachers' salaries. 33 As a result of this legislation, the Swedish school system remained decentralized in economic terms throughout the nineteenth century, even though state subsidies increased over time.…”

“…However, after the state subsidy reform of 1913, state subsidies became the major source of funding for Swedish school districts. 34 Fittingly for a largely rural society, the school funding system delineated by the school act of 1842 was based on both monetary and non-monetary items. The minimum wage consisted of 53 riksdaler banco, eight barrels of grains (at least half of which would be delivered in rye), decent housing, necessary fuel, a summer's grazing and winter fodder for a cow, and a land plot, if possible.…”

The Role of the Weighted Voting System in Investments in Local Public Education: Evidence from a New Historical Database

“…This section is mainly based onWestberg (2017Westberg ( , 2019.21 The administrative system at the local level is complicated since it consists of at least 5 entities: local governments (borgerliga kommuner), parishes (kyrkliga kommuner), school districts (skoldistrikt), cadastral units (jordebokssocken), and poor relief societies (fattigvårdssamhällen). However, in most cases, these administrative entities are identical; thus, I use the word local governments for all these entities.…”